Customer Street and UFindUs Web Design

Today’s article regards the ever growing popularity of Content Management Systems and with the latest developments in these websites more businesses are turning their heads to shaping their own online image the way they see fit and at a significantly reduced cost.

Content Management Systems are a great way of managing your own website as there is no need to purchase any form of ftp softwate, you can either log in to a secure webbased system or download software that allows you to manage your site.

Most CMS companies are offering the use of free themes, and some will offer a bespoke design service where you can get a custom theme created in your business image, this is highly beneficial and more cost effective than having an old school website built for you.

The Benefits

Just think no more long build times or browser errors caused by invalid coding techniques. For those of you who have tried and failed to build your own thinking it would be easy, why waste your precious time faffing and fumbling through dreamweaver and photoshop when you might aswell just get a system that works around you at all times.

I was asked last week to rebuild the website Wedding Photograhers Swansea. The website the client had was looking very dated and there didn’t seem to be much SEO or Graphic Design involved at all. Here is a screenshot of the original website. It doesn’t really cry out ‘We’re professional photographers in Swansea’ does it ?

As the client had another site which they were using as their main website I decided to design something along a similar theme. The main website is built entirley of flash which can look amazing but has limitations on search engine rankings. I decided to continue the theme with an open book look with a few tabs for the extra pages. By using the same content as the original website I was able to fully design and code ready for the SEO work to be completed by Lee Johnson - SEO Manager.

Here is the outcome of the design work.

I’m currently in charge of the general design and functionality of the six Customer Street Blogs.  The blogs are

• CSS
• Improvements
• SEO
• Support
• Training
• Web Design

I have now added a JavaScript open and close function on the components in the right column of all blogs.  So now when you click on the heading ‘Latest Articles’ a smooth drop down appears with the latest articles.  This is also the same for Directories, Department Blogs and More Resources.

This just means that the pages of all the blogs are not cluttered and easier to read.

Future plans include having a JavaScript glider for the trade directories.  Watch this space…..

As part of the design and SEO team at Customer Street I have been given the fun job of redesigning the MoreUK directory. You can view the current MoreUK Business Directory Here.

So what do we need to think about ?

These are the main things I will be thinking about when I start drafting up an image of the potential new MoreUK Directory.

The specific pages need to reflect exactly what they are about. This means that if someone completes a search for a plumber in Lancaster, the page needs to reflect in either images or words, both the area and search phrase. This will ensure that the first impressions when a visitor arrives at a page are very specific to what they are looking for.

We need to get everything that is vitally important in the top 600 pixels of the website. It was a shock to me the amount of people who still use 600 x 800 screen resolution so we need to ensure that no matter what resolution the visitor uses that they can see the important information first.

The Customer Street Design Team are experts in redesigning websites for clients.

Well, it happens to us all.  It’s the New Year and we have the motivation to get our websites redesigned.  You may just have the urge for a new look or it may be because you are not happy  with your website.  Are you generating enough sales ? Are you getting enough visitors ?  Does it take a long time to load ?  Whatever the reason Customer Street can help.

Customer Street employs professional web designers so that your website will stand out from the croud and help pull in the business for you.  It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in because the design team have experience in all industries from their UK Business Directory.

You can view example of some of the Customer Street Design Teams work in our Portfolio or have a look at our trade  directories.